McGowan excited ahead of Roar clash

Adelaide United are putting the final touches on their preparation for Round 1 of the Hyundai A-League, which will see them face Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium.

Ahead of the match, defender, Dylan McGowan, has said he and his teammates are eagerly waiting the start of their Hyundai A-League 2014/15 campaign after a lengthy break between seasons.

“Everyone’s excited. It’s been a really long preseason, so we can’t wait to get started (against Brisbane),” said McGowan.

“The team did really well towards the back-end of last season and we’re really hoping to take that on as a team and win as many games as we can.”

The Reds’ number four also said that progression into the latter stages of the finals should be one of the main targets for the club this season.

Adelaide United have already faced Roar once this preseason in the round of 16 of the Westfield FFA Cup, which the Reds won 2-0 at Coopers Stadium.

“The only tests we’ve had so far have been in the FFA Cup and we’ve come through them with flying colours, so hopefully that bodes well for this season coming.

“But we’ll never really know until our game on Sunday.”

McGowan said that facing the champions from last season is a great way to start the season because it gives the team a benchmark for the rest of the competition and – although very early on – enables the squad to look at areas that may need to be improved.

“They (Brisbane) are obviously going to be strong. They’re a great team, they won the double last year, and they’ve got great players and a great coach.

“We know they’re not going to be pushovers and we’ve prepared extremely well in preseason for this campaign.

“We’re going there (to Suncorp Stadium) confident after beating them a couple of weeks ago and if we work hard we can do it again, but we know this game will be different because last time we were both missing some key players.”

Adelaide United will take on Brisbane Roar on Sunday 12 October 2014, at Suncorp Stadium in Round 1 of the Hyundai A-League 2014/15 season. Kick-off is at 4:00pm AEST (4:30pm ACDT).